Hotel Grand Tirana

Hallo zusammen,

von B**at ging es wied** zurueck in die Hauptstadt (**neut 45in Wartezeit und etwas ueb** 2h Fahrt, wenigstens sind die Strassen in Albanien recht gut). Hatte dann nur ein paar Stunden Tageslicht, ab** das reicht aus, um Tirana zu sehen.

Das Nationalmuseum ist ganz nett und etwas groes** als das Museum des Kosovo. Die Geschichte Albaniens ho**t mit 1945 auf, man schein noch nicht b**eit zu sein die kommunistische A**a zu bew**ten. Das ...

... br>
Tirana has no official bus stations so buses come and go from wherever and asking around is the only way to find out the stops for that week. I decided to continue on to Shkodra to make my way in Montenegro. I found a needle in a haystack on my fifth attempt asking is anyone spoke English and was pointed to a sidestreet where a bus was randomly idling with a sign for Shkodra in its window. How is that for luck in the face of a heavy downpour ...

... I noted Peja is only 4%, that's about the same as our major lager brands in England (although I tend to go for ale back in the homeland..). My table was quickly filled by a bloke, his wife and what looked like his father, who, somewhere, detected I was foreign and asked; "Deutsche?" "No. Anglia" (Which I think is the word for England in Albanian- I could have just as easily called myself a microwave for all I knew). That was the ...

... sens en securite... j'ai aussi visite la cathedrale catholique; c'est un bijou d'architecture recent... jk'y vais demain matin pour la messe de 9 heures (en anglais)... en attendant je me repose, ecoute tv5, fais des emplettes en attendant le retour... j'ai hate de vous revoir... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

... I was lucky, more than once, not to disappear down one of the many huge craters in the pavement. If you were to slip into one of these dark, foreboding holes, I'm pretty sure you would have kept falling until you reached the centre of the earth. Keeping your wits about you was an understatement. When eventually I did reach the guarded checkpoint at the entrance to the port compound I was able to get directions to the station and discover that I had a further 20Min's walking to go ...

... cans line the streets, no one bothers to use them, instead tossing trash in the most convenient location slightly to the side or directly in front of where they happen to be standing. Rolling power outages are a regular occurrence across Albania and Tirana is no exception. In Tirana they seemed to occur twice a day - once in the early afternoon and once in the evening, lasting about 3 hours each time. During these outages ...

... shells, as if they got them half ready in anticipation of a housing boom that never came, or came and went too quickly. The strange thing about the Albanian half-built houses is that they are all adorned with either a scarecrow or a teddy bear that has been impaled on a protruding metal rod or lynched by the neck to hang limply from the roof. This macabre cultural idiosyncrasy is apparently intended to bring good luck to the home. If and when it ever becomes ...

... ball-chucking, Lucy and I headed back up to the house. Eni sat outside with us, but the rest of the family had to sit inside on the sofa because they only had 3 chairs. We also found out that the mum had just started her annual 15 days (!) holiday because her husband was returning for his twice yearly visit on Saturday. Now we felt really bad, and insisted when he return we'd go on the sofa. After dinner, Rudi got out a box of dominos and looked hopefully at us- so we played for about half an hour.

We are all on each others last nerve. Ready to seriously strangle some fellow contikites...we have had two 13 hours days on the bus...ENOUGH!!! Albanian countryside is gorgeous, but the roads lack enough pavement to even be considered a highway. Pothole city! The EU has given money to Albania to improve their ...

... and churches dot the landscape...piles of rubble all around... --The remains of churches are enclosed in barbed-wire with severe signs posted warning of the authorized use of deadly force to address trespassing... --Cemetaries bear a "new housing development" feel--so many shiny-new tombstones and monuments...no old trees or landscaping to provide beauty and color...just dirt and walls... Yes, the impact of war is apparent... And...the hatred of Serbs for ...